Blowback A Warning To Save Democracy From The Next Trump

Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump

The specter of Donald Trump’s presidency continues to haunt American democracy. His actions, rhetoric, and the subsequent January 6th insurrection serve as a stark warning. This isn't just about Trump himself; it's about the potential for a similar figure, wielding similar tactics, to exploit vulnerabilities in our democratic systems. This post delves into the concept of "blowback"—the unintended consequences of actions—highlighting the dangers inherent in ignoring the lessons of the past four years and outlining crucial steps to safeguard American democracy from future populist threats. We’ll examine the underlying causes that fueled Trump's rise, explore the strategies employed to undermine democratic norms, and propose concrete solutions to prevent a repeat of this near-catastrophic event.

Understanding the "Blowback" Effect

The term "blowback" typically refers to the unintended negative consequences of covert operations or foreign policy decisions. However, it's equally applicable to domestic politics. Trump's presidency generated significant blowback, including:

Erosion of Trust in Institutions: The constant attacks on the press, the judiciary, and other governmental bodies created a climate of distrust, weakening the very pillars of democratic governance.
Increased Political Polarization: His divisive rhetoric exacerbated existing societal divisions, making constructive dialogue and compromise nearly impossible.
Rise of Extremist Groups: Trump's actions and rhetoric emboldened extremist groups, leading to increased violence and threats to democratic processes.
Weakening of Democratic Norms: His disregard for established rules and conventions normalized behavior previously considered unacceptable for a head of state.

These are not isolated incidents; they represent a systemic challenge to the health of American democracy. The blowback from Trump's presidency is far-reaching and demands serious attention.

The Ingredients for a Populist Uprising: Analyzing Trump's Success

Trump's success wasn't accidental. It was the culmination of several factors:

Economic Anxiety: Decades of economic stagnation and globalization fueled resentment and a sense of displacement among many working-class Americans.
Cultural Resentment: Rapid social and cultural shifts left many feeling alienated and unheard, creating fertile ground for populist appeals.
Information Warfare: The proliferation of misinformation and disinformation online allowed Trump and his allies to manipulate public opinion and sow discord.
Exploitation of Systemic Weaknesses: Existing vulnerabilities within the American political system, such as gerrymandering and the Electoral College, were skillfully exploited to maximize his electoral advantage.

Preventing the Next Trump: A Proactive Approach

Avoiding a repeat of the Trump phenomenon requires a multi-pronged approach:

Strengthening Democratic Institutions: Investing in robust electoral systems, protecting the independence of the judiciary, and supporting a free and independent press are paramount.
Promoting Media Literacy: Equipping citizens with the critical thinking skills necessary to identify and resist misinformation is crucial.
Addressing Economic Inequality: Implementing policies that address economic inequality and provide opportunities for all citizens will help alleviate the resentment that fuels populist movements.
Fostering Inclusive Dialogue: Creating spaces for constructive dialogue and understanding across different groups can help bridge societal divides.
Reforming Campaign Finance: Addressing the influence of money in politics is crucial to preventing future candidates from exploiting the system for personal gain.

The Role of Education and Civic Engagement

Education plays a vital role in safeguarding democracy. Citizens must be educated about their rights and responsibilities, the importance of civic participation, and the dangers of authoritarianism. Encouraging active civic engagement, including voting, volunteering, and participating in community organizations, is crucial to strengthening democratic norms and resisting populist threats.

Conclusion

The "blowback" from the Trump presidency serves as a powerful warning. Ignoring the lessons of the past is a dangerous gamble. Preventing a similar situation requires a concerted effort to strengthen democratic institutions, address underlying societal issues, and promote civic engagement. This is not a partisan issue; it's a matter of preserving the future of American democracy. The time to act is now. The consequences of inaction are far too severe to contemplate.

FAQs

1. What specific legislative changes are needed to prevent another Trump-like presidency? Several reforms are needed, including campaign finance reform, voting rights protections, and measures to combat disinformation. Specific proposals vary, but the goal is to level the playing field and ensure fairer elections.

2. How can we combat the spread of misinformation and disinformation online? Combating misinformation requires a multi-faceted approach, including improving media literacy education, holding social media platforms accountable for the content they host, and supporting fact-checking initiatives.

3. What role do social media platforms play in the rise of populism? Social media platforms have become powerful tools for spreading misinformation and mobilizing support for populist leaders. Their algorithms often amplify extremist views, contributing to polarization and the spread of harmful narratives.

4. What can ordinary citizens do to protect democracy? Ordinary citizens can actively participate in the democratic process by voting, engaging in civil discourse, supporting fact-checking initiatives, and holding elected officials accountable.

5. Is it realistic to expect complete prevention of another populist leader rising to power? Completely preventing the rise of another populist leader is unlikely. However, by addressing the underlying issues that fuel populism and strengthening democratic institutions, we can significantly reduce the likelihood of a similar event occurring.


  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Blowback Miles Taylor, 2023-07-18 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The author behind the “eye-popping” (CNN) #1 New York Times bestseller A Warning presents an urgent look at how our deeply divided nation is setting the stage for “The Next Trump.” Donald Trump will be president again, whether he is on the ballot or not. That is because Trumpism is overtaking the Republican Party and will mount a vigorous comeback, potentially in the hands of a savvier successor—The Next Trump. This prophecy will come true, according to Miles Taylor, if we do not learn the lessons of the recent past. With the 2024 election approaching, the formerly “Anonymous” official is back with bombshell revelations and a sobering national forecast. Through interviews with dozens of ex-Trump aides and government leaders, Taylor predicts what could happen inside “Trump 2.0,” the White House of a more competent and more formidable copycat. What sounds like a political thriller—from shadowy presidential powers and CIA betrayals to angry henchmen and assassination plots—is instead America’s political reality, as Taylor uses untold stories to shed light on the ex-President’s unfulfilled plans, the dark forces haunting our civic lives, and how we can thwart the rise of extremism in the United States. Blowback is also a surprisingly emotional and self-critical portrait of a dissenter, whose own unmasking provides a vivid warning about what happens when we hide the truth from others and, most importantly, ourselves.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Blowback Miles Taylor, 2023-07-18 The author behind the “eye-popping” (CNN) #1 New York Times bestseller A Warning presents an urgent look at how our deeply divided nation is setting the stage for “The Next Trump.” Donald Trump will be president again, whether he is on the ballot or not. That is because Trumpism is overtaking the Republican Party and will mount a vigorous comeback, potentially in the hands of a savvier successor—The Next Trump. This prophecy will come true, according to Miles Taylor, if we do not learn the lessons of the recent past. With the 2024 election approaching, the formerly “Anonymous” official is back with bombshell revelations and a sobering national forecast. Through interviews with dozens of ex-Trump aides and government leaders, Taylor predicts what could happen inside “Trump 2.0,” the White House of a more competent and more formidable copycat. What sounds like a political thriller—from shadowy presidential powers and CIA betrayals to angry henchmen and assassination plots—is instead America’s political reality, as Taylor uses untold stories to shed light on the ex-President’s unfulfilled plans, the dark forces haunting our civic lives, and how we can thwart the rise of extremism in the United States. Blowback is also a surprisingly emotional and self-critical portrait of a dissenter, whose own unmasking provides a vivid warning about what happens when we hide the truth from others and, most importantly, ourselves.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: A Warning Anonymous, 2019-11-19 #1 New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller: An unprecedented behind-the-scenes portrait of the Trump presidency from the anonymous senior official whose first words of warning about the president rocked the nation's capital. On September 5, 2018, the New York Times published a bombshell essay and took the rare step of granting its writer anonymity. Described only as a senior official in the Trump administration, the author provided eyewitness insight into White House chaos, administration instability, and the people working to keep Donald Trump's reckless impulses in check. With the 2020 election on the horizon, Anonymous is speaking out once again. In this book, the original author pulls back the curtain even further, offering a first-of-its-kind look at the president and his record -- a must-read before Election Day. It will surprise and challenge both Democrats and Republicans, motivate them to consider how we judge our nation's leaders, and illuminate the consequences of re-electing a commander in chief unfit for the role. This book is a sobering assessment of the man in the Oval Office and a warning about something even more important -- who we are as a people.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: The Storm Is Upon Us Mike Rothschild, 2021-06-22 I hope everyone reads this book. It has become such a crucial thing for all of us to understand. —Erin Burnett, CNN An ideal tour guide for your journey into the depths of the rabbit hole that is QAnon. It even shows you a glimmer of light at the exit. —Cullen Hoback, director of HBO's Q: Into the Storm Its messaging can seem cryptic, even nonsensical, yet for tens of thousands of people, it explains everything: What is QAnon, where did it come from, and is the Capitol insurgency a sign of where it’s going next? On October 5th, 2017, President Trump made a cryptic remark in the State Dining Room at a gathering of military officials. He said it felt like “the calm before the storm”—then refused to elaborate as puzzled journalists asked him to explain. But on the infamous message boards of 4chan, a mysterious poster going by “Q Clearance Patriot,” who claimed to be in “military intelligence,” began the elaboration on their own. In the days that followed, Q’s wild yarn explaining Trump's remarks began to rival the sinister intricacies of a Tom Clancy novel, while satisfying the deepest desires of MAGA-America. But did any of what Q predicted come to pass? No. Did that stop people from clinging to every word they were reading, expanding its mythology, and promoting it wider and wider? No. Why not? Who were these rapt listeners? How do they reconcile their worldview with the America they see around them? Why do their numbers keep growing? Mike Rothschild, a journalist specializing in conspiracy theories, has been collecting their stories for years, and through interviews with QAnon converts, apostates, and victims, as well as psychologists, sociologists, and academics, he is uniquely equipped to explain the movement and its followers. In The Storm Is Upon Us, he takes readers from the background conspiracies and cults that fed the Q phenomenon, to its embrace by right-wing media and Donald Trump, through the rending of families as loved ones became addicted to Q’s increasingly violent rhetoric, to the storming of the Capitol, and on. And as the phenomenon shows no sign of calming despite Trump’s loss of the presidency—with everyone from Baby Boomers to Millennial moms proving susceptible to its messaging—and politicians starting to openly espouse its ideology, Rothschild makes a compelling case that mocking the seeming madness of QAnon will get us nowhere. Rather, his impassioned reportage makes clear it's time to figure out what QAnon really is — because QAnon and its relentlessly dark theory of everything isn’t done yet.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Blowback Christopher Simpson, 2014-06-10 A searing account of a dark “chapter in U.S. Cold War history . . . to help the anti-Soviet aims of American intelligence and national security agencies” (Library Journal). Even before the final shots of World War II were fired, another war began—a cold war that pitted the United States against its former ally, the Soviet Union. As the Soviets consolidated power in Eastern Europe, the CIA scrambled to gain the upper hand against new enemies worldwide. To this end, senior officials at the CIA, National Security Council, and other elements of the emerging US national security state turned to thousands of former Nazis, Waffen Secret Service, and Nazi collaborators for propaganda, psychological warfare, and military operations. Many new recruits were clearly responsible for the deaths of countless innocents as part of Adolph Hitler’s “Final Solution,” yet were whitewashed and claimed to be valuable intelligence assets. Unrepentant mass murderers were secretly accepted into the American fold, their crimes forgotten and forgiven with the willing complicity of the US government. Blowback is the first thorough, scholarly study of the US government’s extensive recruitment of Nazis and fascist collaborators right after the war. Although others have approached the topic since, Simpson’s book remains the essential starting point. The author demonstrates how this secret policy of collaboration only served to intensify the Cold War and has had lasting detrimental effects on the American government and society that endure to this day.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Midnight in Washington Adam Schiff, 2021-10-12 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The vital inside account of American democracy in its darkest hour, from the rise of autocracy unleashed by Trump to the January 6 insurrection, and a warning that those forces remain as potent as ever—from the congressman who led the first impeachment of Donald J. Trump “Engaging and informative . . . a manual for how to probe and question power, how to hold leaders accountable in a time of diminishing responsibility.”—The Washington Post With a new afterword by the author In the years leading up to the election of Donald Trump, Congressman Adam Schiff had already been sounding the alarm over the resurgence of autocracy around the world, and the threat this posed to the United States. But as he led the probe into Donald Trump’s Russia and Ukraine-related abuses of presidential power, Schiff came to the terrible conclusion that the principal threat to American democracy now came from within. In Midnight in Washington, Schiff argues that the Trump presidency has so weakened our institutions and compromised the Republican Party that the peril will last for years, requiring unprecedented vigilance against the growing and dangerous appeal of authoritarianism. The congressman chronicles step-by-step just how our democracy was put at such risk, and traces his own path to meeting the crisis—from serious prosecutor, to congressman with an expertise in national security and a reputation for bipartisanship, to liberal lightning rod, scourge of the right, and archenemy of a president. Schiff takes us inside his team of impeachment managers and their desperate defense of the Constitution amid the rise of a distinctly American brand of autocracy. Deepening our understanding of prominent public moments, Schiff reveals the private struggles, the internal conflicts, and the triumphs of courage that came with defending the republic against a lawless president—but also the slow surrender of people that he had worked with and admired to the dangerous immorality of a president engaged in an historic betrayal of his office. Schiff’s fight for democracy is one of the great dramas of our time, told by the man who became the president’s principal antagonist. It is a story that began with Trump but does not end with him, taking us through the disastrous culmination of the presidency and Schiff’s account of January 6, 2021, and how the antidemocratic forces Trump unleashed continue to define his party, making the future of democracy in America more uncertain than ever.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: American Resistance David Rothkopf, 2022-11-01 It could have been so much worse: a deeply reported, insider story of how a handful of Washington officials staged a daring resistance to an unprecedented presidency and prevented chaos overwhelming the government and the nation. Each federal employee takes an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic,” but none had imagined that enemy might be the Commander-in-Chief. With the presidency of Donald Trump, a fault line between the president and vital forces within his government was established. Those who honored their oath of office, their obligation to the Constitution, were wary of the president and they in turn were not trusted and occasionally fired and replaced with loyalists. American Resistance is the first book to chronicle the unprecedented role so many in the government were forced to play and the consequences of their actions during the Trump administration. From Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother Yevgeny, to Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, to Bill Taylor, Fiona Hill, and the official who first called himself “Anonymous”—Miles Taylor, among others, Rothkopf examines the resistance movement that slowly built in Washington. Drawing from first hand testimonies, deep background and research, American Resistance shows how when the President threatened to run amok, a few key figures rose in defiance. It reveals the conflict within the Department of Justice over actively seeking instances of election fraud and abuse to help the president illegally retain power, and multiple battles within the White House over the influence of Jared and Ivanka, and in particular the extraordinary efforts to get them security clearances even after they were denied to them. David Rothkopf chronicles how each person came to realize that they were working for an administration that threatened to wreak havoc – one Defense Secretary was told by his mother to resign before it was too late – in an intense drama in which a few good men and women stood up to the tyrant in their midst.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Blowback Miles Taylor, 2024-04-09 The author behind the “eye-popping” (CNN) #1 New York Times bestseller A Warning presents an urgent look at how our deeply divided nation is setting the stage for “The Next Trump.” Donald Trump will be president again, whether he is on the ballot or not. That is because Trumpism is overtaking the Republican Party and will mount a vigorous comeback, potentially in the hands of a savvier successor. This prophecy will come true, according to Miles Taylor, if we do not learn the lessons of the recent past. With the 2024 election approaching, the formerly “Anonymous” official is back with bombshell revelations and a sobering national forecast. Through interviews with dozens of ex-Trump aides and government leaders, Taylor predicts what could happen inside “Trump 2.0,” the White House of a more competent and more formidable copycat. What sounds like a political thriller—from shadowy presidential powers and CIA betrayals to angry henchmen and assassination plots—is instead America’s political reality, as Taylor uses untold stories to shed light on the ex-President’s unfulfilled plans, the dark forces haunting our lives, and how we can thwart the rise of extremism in the United States.\ Blowback is also a surprisingly emotional and self-critical portrait of a dissenter, whose own unmasking provides a vivid warning about what happens when we hide the truth from others and, most importantly, ourselves.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Laboratories of Autocracy David Pepper, 2021-10-15 “It’s the statehouses, stupid.” Laboratories of Autocracy shows that far more than the high-profile antics of politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Jim Jordan—and yes, even bigger than Donald Trump’s Big Lie”—it’s anonymous, often corrupt politicians in statehouses across the country who pose the greatest dangers to American democracy. Because these statehouses no longer operate as functioning democracies, these unknown politicians have all the incentive to keep doing greater damage, and can not be held accountable however extreme they get. This has driven steep declines in states like Ohio and others across the country. And collectively, it’s placed American democracy in its greatest peril since the dawn of the Jim Crow era. But Pepper doesn’t stop there. He lays out a robust pro-democracy agenda outlining how everyone from elected officials to business leaders to everyday citizens can fight back.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: The Cruelty Is the Point Adam Serwer, 2021-06-29 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From an award-winning journalist at The Atlantic, these searing essays make a powerful case that “real hope lies not in a sunny nostalgia for American greatness but in seeing this history plain—in all of its brutality, unadorned by euphemism” (The New York Times). NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • “No writer better demonstrates how American dreams are so often sabotaged by American history. Adam Serwer is essential.”—Ta-Nehisi Coates To many, our most shocking political crises appear unprecedented—un-American, even. But they are not, writes The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer in this prescient essay collection, which dissects the most devastating moments in recent memory to reveal deeply entrenched dynamics, patterns as old as the country itself. The January 6 insurrection, anti-immigrant sentiment, and American authoritarianism all have historic roots that explain their continued power with or without President Donald Trump—a fact borne out by what has happened since his departure from the White House. Serwer argues that Trump is not the cause, he is a symptom. Serwer’s phrase “the cruelty is the point” became among the most-used descriptions of Trump’s era, but as this book demonstrates, it resonates across centuries. The essays here combine revelatory reporting, searing analysis, and a clarity that’s bracing. In this new, expanded version of his bestselling debut, Serwer elegantly dissects white supremacy’s profound influence on our political system, looking at the persistence of the Lost Cause, the past and present of police unions, the mythology of migration, and the many faces of anti-Semitism. In so doing, he offers abundant proof that our past is present and demonstrates the devastating costs of continuing to pretend it’s not. The Cruelty Is the Point dares us, the reader, to not look away.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: I'll Take Your Questions Now Stephanie Grisham, 2021-10-05 The most frank and intimate portrait of the Trump White House yet Stephanie Grisham rose from being a junior press wrangler on the Trump campaign in 2016 to assuming top positions in the administration as White House press secretary and communications director, while at the same time acting as First Lady Melania Trump’s communications director and eventually chief of staff. Few members of the Trump inner circle served longer or were as close to the first family as Stephanie Grisham, and few had her unique insight into the turbulent four years of the administration, especially the personalities behind the headlines.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Never Trump Robert P. Saldin, Steven Michael Teles, 2020 In early 2016, as it became increasingly apparent that Donald Trump might actually become the Republican nominee, a movement within conservatism formed to stop him: Never Trump. Comprised primarily of Republican policy elites and conservative intellectuals, the Never Trumpers saw Trump's stated views as a repudiation of longstanding Republican foreign and domestic policy goals. Just as importantly, they saw him as erratic, mendacious, and unfit--the sort of person the founders warned about and someone who would bring everlasting shame to the Republican Party. Over the coming months, many well-known and previously influential figures signed on to the Never Trump movement. Of course, their efforts failed, and Trump now dominates the Republican Party like a warlord. As Robert P. Saldin and Steven M. Teles argue in Never Trump, however, the influence of the movement turned out to be much larger than its disappointing impact on the election. For one, it has had an enormous impact on the actual composition of the Trump administration. There has never been a party in the Western World that was elected and sought to govern with such a wide range of intra-party opposition. As Trump supporter Pat Buchanan observed after the election, the Never Trumpers essentially gifted Trump with a readymade enemies list-a list that those in charge of appointments paid close attention to. Trump's picks for a wide range of positions, especially in the area of foreign policy, look vastly different than they would have in any other Republican administration, in large part because so many potential office-holders had declared themselves implacably opposed to Trump. Even more profoundly, the administration found it very difficult--and in many cases impossible--to fill a wide range of positions because all of the plausible candidates for jobs that required technocratic as well as ideological credentials had signed on to Never Trump. Never Trump examines the reasons for this widespread and unprecedented intra-party opposition to Trump, why it took the form it did, and its longer-term consequences.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Confidence Man Maggie Haberman, 2022-10-05 From the Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter who has defined Donald J. Trump’s presidency like no other journalist: a magnificent and disturbing reckoning that chronicles his life and its impact, from his rise in New York City to his tortured postpresidency. All of Trump’s behavior as president had echoes in what came before. In this revelatory and news-making book, Haberman brings together the events of his life into a single mesmerizing work. It is the definitive account of one of the most norms-shattering and consequential eras in American political history.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Unmaking the Presidency Susan Hennessey, Benjamin Wittes, 2020-01-21 This is a book for everyone who has developed an unexpected nostalgia for political 'norms' during the Trump years . . . Other books on the Trump White House expertly detail the mayhem inside; this book builds on those works to detail its consequences. —Carlos Lozada (one of twelve books to read to understand what's going on) Perhaps the most penetrating book to have been written about Trump in office.—Lawrence Douglas, The Times Literary Supplement The definitive account of how Donald Trump has wielded the powers of the American presidency The extraordinary authority of the U.S. presidency has no parallel in the democratic world. Today that authority resides in the hands of one man, Donald J. Trump. But rarely if ever has the nature of a president clashed more profoundly with the nature of the office. Unmaking the Presidency tells the story of the confrontation between a person and the institution he almost wholly embodies. From the moment of his inauguration, Trump has challenged our deepest expectations of the presidency. But what are those expectations, where did they come from, and how great is the damage? As editors of the “invaluable” (The New York Times) Lawfare website, Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes have attracted a large audience to their hard-hitting and highly informed commentary on the controversies surrounding the Trump administration. In this book, they situate Trump-era scandals and outrages in the deeper context of the presidency itself. How should we understand the oath of office when it is taken by a man who may not know what it means to preserve, protect, and defend something other than himself? What aspects of Trump are radically different from past presidents and what aspects have historical antecedents? When has he simply built on his predecessors’ misdeeds, and when has he invented categories of misrule entirely his own? By setting Trump in the light of history, Hennessey and Wittes provide a crucial and durable account of a presidency like no other.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Unhinged Omarosa Manigault Newman, 2018-08-14 The former Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison in the Trump White House provides a jaw-dropping look into the corruption and controversy of the current administration. Few have been a member of Donald Trump’s inner orbit longer than Omarosa Manigault Newman. Their relationship has spanned fifteen years—through four television shows, a presidential campaign, and a year by his side in the most chaotic, outrageous White House in history. But that relationship has come to a decisive and definitive end, and Omarosa is finally ready to share her side of the story in this explosive, jaw-dropping account. A stunning tell-all and takedown from a strong, intelligent woman who took every name and number, Unhinged is a must-read for any concerned citizen.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: The Hitler We Loved & Why Christof Friedrich, Eric Thomson, 2004-11 What, other than love, can explain the German people's glad welcome of this humble, but thoroughly dedicated savior from the Eastern Marches? What, other than love, can explain how the people of Greater Germany remained with him in bad times and good, for better or for worse? What, other than love, can explain the fact that those who remember him love him still?We loved him because he stood for the best that was in us, and as Our Leader, demanded of us our best. It was never Hitler's Germany. It shall always be: Germany's Hitler, the man loved by his people.This is why we loved him...
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Politics, Principle and Standing Up to Donald Trump Kristen Monroe, 2024-06-17 The Muslim ban. Immigrant children, caged, isolated from their families. Downplaying COVID-19. Infatuation with foreign dictators. Voter fraud. Election denial. Encouraging the January 6th 2021 Capital insurrection. Despite Donald Trump’s many legal and moral abuses, most Republican Party leaders continue to support him. Why? How can we explain Republican complicity? True believers in the MAGA cult are rare. There are moderate Republican members of Congress – Kevin McCarthy, Lindsay Graham, and Mitch McConnell – who publicly rebuked Trump, only to later back down and support him and his version of the truth. The motivation driving these powerful political leaders – fear, self-interest, lack of moral fiber – is less interesting than is a related question: What propelled the moral courage of the few traditionally conservative Republicans who refused to go along with Trump and his obvious lies? The world saw great physical courage on January 6th, as members of the Capital police fought against overwhelming odds, risking their lives to protect members of Congress. Such physical courage is commendable and rare. Yet moral courage – the willingness to stand up and fight for what you believe is right, even when you know it will cost you – is even rarer. How can we explain why some Republicans followed their consciences, while many others did not? This is the topic of this book. Analyzing in-depth interviews, public speeches, journals, documents, and other data from dedicated Republicans -- Senators McCain, Romney, and Flake, Representatives Kinzinger and Cheney, committed Republican stalwarts Rick Wilson and Anthony Scaramucci, and dedicated Republican officeholders like Miles Taylor -- lends insight into both what drives moral courage, and the double-edged sword aspect of moral courage in politics, in which every act of moral courage is also a complex act of betrayal.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Blowback Chalmers Johnson, 2001-01-23 An explosive account of the resentments American policies are sowing around the world and of the payback that will be our harvest in the twenty-first century. Blowback, a term invented by the CIA, refers to the uninted consequences of American policies. In this sure-to-be-controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms. From a case of rape by U.S. servicemen in Okinawa to our role in Asia's financial crisis, from our early support for Saddam Hussein to our actions in the Balkans, Johnson reveals the ways in which our misguided policies are planting the seeds of future disaster. In the wake of the Cold War, the United States has imprudently expanded the commitments it made over the previous forty years, argues Johnson. In Blowback, he issues a warning we would do well to consider: it is time for our empire to demobilize before our bills come due.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: They Want to Kill Americans Malcolm Nance, 2022-07-12 NOW A NEW YORK TIMES, LOS ANGELES TIMES, USA TODAY AND GREAT LAKES INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLER ASSOCIATION BESTSELLER New York Times bestselling author, Malcolm Nance, offers a chilling warning on a clear, present and existential threat to our democracy... our fellow Americans “Malcolm Nance is one of the great unsung national security geniuses of the modern era. —Rachel Maddow To varying degrees, as many as 74 million Americans have expressed hostility towards American democracy. Their radicalization is increasingly visible in our day to day life: in neighbor’s or family member’s open discussion of bizarre conspiracy theories, reveling in the fantasy of mass murdering the liberals they believe are drinking the blood of children. These are the results of the deranged series of lies stoked by former President Donald Trump, made worse by the global pandemic. The first steps of an American fracture were predicted by Malcolm Nance months before the January 6, 2021 insurrection, heralding the start of a generational terror threat greater than either al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. Nance calls this growing unrest the Trump Insurgency in the United States or TITUS. The post-2020 election urge to return to a place of “normalcy”—to forget—is the worst response we can have. American militiamen, terrorists, and radicalized political activists are already armed in mass numbers and regularly missed in the media; principally because Trump’s most loyal and violent foot soldiers benefit from the ultimate privilege—being white. They Want to Kill Americans is the first detailed look into the heart of the active Trump-led insurgency, setting the stage for a second nation-wide rebellion on American soil. This is a chilling and deeply researched early warning to the nation from a counterterrorism intelligence professional: America is primed for a possible explosive wave of terrorist attacks and armed confrontations that aim to bring about a Donald Trump led dictatorship.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Peril Bob Woodward, Robert Costa, 2023-01-03 The transition from President Donald J. Trump to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stands as one of the most dangerous periods in American history. But as #1 internationally bestselling author Bob Woodward and acclaimed reporter Robert Costa reveal for the first time, it was far more than just a domestic political crisis. Woodward and Costa interviewed more than 200 people at the center of the turmoil, resulting in more than 6,000 pages of transcripts—and a spellbinding and definitive portrait of a nation on the brink. This classic study of Washington takes readers deep inside the Trump White House, the Biden White House, the 2020 campaign, and the Pentagon and Congress, with eyewitness accounts of what really happened. Intimate scenes are supplemented with never-before-seen material from secret orders, transcripts of confidential calls, diaries, emails, meeting notes and other personal and government records, making Peril an unparalleled history. It is also the first inside look at Biden’s presidency as he began his presidency facing the challenges of a lifetime: the continuing deadly pandemic and millions of Americans facing soul-crushing economic pain, all the while navigating a bitter and disabling partisan divide, a world rife with threats, and the hovering, dark shadow of the former president.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: The Loop Jacob Ward, 2022-01-25 This eye-opening narrative journey into the rapidly changing world of artificial intelligence reveals the dangerous ways AI is exploiting the unconscious habits of our minds, and the real threat it poses to humanity: The best book I have ever read about AI (New York Times bestselling author Roger McNamee). Artificial intelligence is going to change the world as we know it. But the real danger isn't some robot that's going to enslave us: It's our own brain. Our brains are constantly making decisions using shortcuts, biases, and hidden processes—and we're using those same techniques to create technology that makes choices for us. In The Loop, award-winning science journalist Jacob Ward reveals how we are poised to build all of our worst instincts into our AIs, creating a narrow loop where each generation has fewer, predetermined, and even dangerous choices. Taking us on a world tour of the ongoing, real-world experiment of artificial intelligence, The Loop illuminates the dangers of writing dangerous human habits into our machines. From a biometric surveillance state in India that tracks the movements of over a billion people, to a social media control system in China that punishes deviant friendships, to the risky multiple-choice simplicity of automated military action, Ward travels the world speaking with top experts confronting the perils of their research. Each stop reveals how the most obvious patterns in our behavior—patterns an algorithm will use to make decisions about what's best for us—are not the ones we want to perpetuate. Just as politics, marketing, and finance have all exploited the weaknesses of our human programming, artificial intelligence is poised to use the patterns of our lives to manipulate us. The Loop is call to look at ourselves more clearly—our most creative ideas, our most destructive impulses, the ways we help and hurt one another-so we can put only the best parts of ourselves into the thinking machines we create.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Mindf*ck Christopher Wylie, 2019-10-08 For the first time, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower tells the inside story of the data mining and psychological manipulation behind the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit referendum, connecting Facebook, WikiLeaks, Russian intelligence, and international hackers. “Mindf*ck demonstrates how digital influence operations, when they converged with the nasty business of politics, managed to hollow out democracies.”—The Washington Post Mindf*ck goes deep inside Cambridge Analytica’s “American operations,” which were driven by Steve Bannon’s vision to remake America and fueled by mysterious billionaire Robert Mercer’s money, as it weaponized and wielded the massive store of data it had harvested on individuals—in excess of 87 million—to disunite the United States and set Americans against each other. Bannon had long sensed that deep within America’s soul lurked an explosive tension. Cambridge Analytica had the data to prove it, and in 2016 Bannon had a presidential campaign to use as his proving ground. Christopher Wylie might have seemed an unlikely figure to be at the center of such an operation. Canadian and liberal in his politics, he was only twenty-four when he got a job with a London firm that worked with the U.K. Ministry of Defense and was charged putatively with helping to build a team of data scientists to create new tools to identify and combat radical extremism online. In short order, those same military tools were turned to political purposes, and Cambridge Analytica was born. Wylie’s decision to become a whistleblower prompted the largest data-crime investigation in history. His story is both exposé and dire warning about a sudden problem born of very new and powerful capabilities. It has not only laid bare the profound vulnerabilities—and profound carelessness—in the enormous companies that drive the attention economy, it has also exposed the profound vulnerabilities of democracy itself. What happened in 2016 was just a trial run. Ruthless actors are coming for your data, and they want to control what you think.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Carnival of Shame Reflections on the Conservative Fifty-Year Betrayal of America M.G. Montpelier, 2024-01-21 CARNIVAL OF SHAME is a reflective commentary on the Fifty-Year Conservative “Assault on America,” from the 1971 “Powell” political grand design to save “Capitalism from Democracy” and the 1981 Republican “Trickle-Down” Revolution to the January 6, 2021 Republican violent insurrection to overturn the Constitution and the electoral will of the people. Yesterday’s America of promise, opportunity, and prosperity for the many is today an America of “concentrated wealth,” wealthy tax cuts, and a Republican Subsistence “Trickle-Down” Society for the “surplus” left behind. The time is now the moment is here for a People of Liberty to come together for an America of secure democratic institutions, a strong middle class, and a Republic of “Liberty and Justice for All. Remember WE Must They came promising “Trickle-Down” Prosperity Then Repealed the Rule of Law Took our Jobs and Pensions Undermined our Civil Liberties As Fascism Triumphed in the Suffering Silence Of Human Bondage.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Overthrow Stephen Kinzer, 2007-02-06 Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow provides a fast-paced narrative history of the coups, revolutions, and invasions by which the United States has toppled fourteen foreign governments -- not always to its own benefit Regime change did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold War and into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 is the latest, though perhaps not the last, example of the dangers inherent in these operations. In Overthrow, Stephen Kinzer tells the stories of the audacious politicians, spies, military commanders, and business executives who took it upon themselves to depose monarchs, presidents, and prime ministers. He also shows that the U.S. government has often pursued these operations without understanding the countries involved; as a result, many of them have had disastrous long-term consequences. In a compelling and provocative history that takes readers to fourteen countries, including Cuba, Iran, South Vietnam, Chile, and Iraq, Kinzer surveys modern American history from a new and often surprising perspective. Detailed, passionate and convincing . . . [with] the pace and grip of a good thriller. -- Anatol Lieven, The New York Times Book Review
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: SUMMARY Of Disloyal: A Memoir OneHour Reads, 2020-08-26
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Fallout John Solomon, Seamus Bruner, 2020-07-14 This book is a MUST BUY! – President Donald J. Trump The Russia and Ukraine scandals are unraveled, corruption and greed exposed. No one is better at uncovering the truth than these two investigative journalists. – Gregg Jarrett, FOX News legal analyst and author of the #1 NYT bestsellers The Russia Hoax and Witch Hunt An exhaustively researched book that reads like an investigative thriller, Fallout reveals how Obama’s “Russian Reset” led to corruption, scandal, and a desperate bid to impeach Donald Trump. In 2015, a major story broke exposing Hillary Clinton’s role in approving the sale of American uranium assets to the Russian state nuclear agency, Rosatom. Not only did the sale of Uranium One put 20 percent of America’s domestic uranium supply under the control of Vladimir Putin, there was also evidence that the Clintons themselves had hugely profited from the deal. When presidential candidate Donald Trump made Uranium One the centerpiece of his “Crooked Hillary” attacks, the Clinton team feared its potential to damage Hillary’s campaign. Others in the Obama-Biden camp worried that if elected, Trump would expose their role in selling out America’s security to Putin. Their desperate need to neutralize the issue led them to launch an unprecedented investigation into the Trump campaign’s purported ties to Russia. The infamous Steele dossier, produced by Clinton-connected Fusion GPS, sparked an investigation under FBI Director James Comey. Instead of ending after the election, the investigation grew bigger, eventually leading to Comey’s firing and the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. When Mueller failed to find grounds for impeachment, Democrats seized on an ambiguous phone call with the Ukrainian president as a pretext to remove Trump from office. This gambit blew up in their faces when it exposed the secrets that Democrats tried hard to keep buried. An indispensable guide to the hidden background of recent events, Fallout shows how Putin’s bid for nuclear dominance produced a series of political scandals that ultimately posed one of the greatest threats to our democracy in modern American history.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Thank You for Your Servitude Mark Leibovich, 2022-07-12 The #1 New York Times Bestseller “He’s one of the best chroniclers of politics today.” –Jake Tapper “This is a really funny book.” –Kara Swisher “His writing is so damn good.” –John Berman “Really fascinating...There are so many revelations.” –Anderson Cooper “The new must read summer book.” –Stephanie Ruhle From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller This Town, the eyewitness account of how the GOP collaborated with Donald Trump to transform Washington’s “swamp” into a gold-plated hot tub—and a onetime party of rugged individualists into a sycophantic personality cult. In the early months of Trump’s candidacy, the Republican Party’s most important figures, people such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, were united—and loud—in their scorn and contempt. Even more, in their outrage: Trump was a menace and an affront to our democracy. Then, awkwardly, Trump won. Thank You for Your Servitude is Mark Leibovich’s unflinching account of the moral rout of a major American political party, tracking the transformation of Rubio, Cruz, Graham, and their ilk into the administration’s chief enablers, and the swamp’s lesser lights into frantic chasers of the grift. What would these politicos do to preserve their place in the sun, or at least the orbit of the spray tan? What would they do to preserve their “relevance”? Almost anything, it turns out. Trump’s savage bullying of everyone in his circle, along with his singular command of his political base, created a dangerous culture of submission in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, many of the most alpha of the lapdogs happily conceded to Mark Leibovich that they were “in on the joke.” As Lindsey Graham told the author, his supporters in South Carolina generally don’t read The New York Times, and they won’t read this book, either. All that cynicism, shading into nihilism, led to a country truly unhinged from reality, and to the events of January 6, 2021. It’s a vista that makes the Washington of This Town seem like a comedy of manners in comparison. Thank You for Your Servitude isn’t another view from the Oval Office: it’s the view from the Trump Hotel. We can check out any time we want, but only time will tell if we can ever leave.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Bodies of Meaning David McNally, 2001-01-01 Challenges postmodernist theories of language and politics which detach language from human bodies and their material practices.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Dereliction of Duty Frederic B Hill, 2020-07-22 This book tears Donald Trump's presidency to shreds - exposing his ignorance, bullying, lying, racism, deep ties to Russia and destruction of America's standing in the world with fact after fact after undisputed fact, all wrapped up in a withering portrayal of the 45th president. Fred Hill doesn't spare the Republican politicians of today whom he sees as ripe for a remake of the great science fiction film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, for their craven abasement to a clownish TV reality showman who has trampled on the rule of law, our basic freedoms of the press and religion and U.S. alliances that have provided global leadership since World War II. As a foreign correspondent, senior adviser to a respected Republican senator and then head of a State Department office that conducted wargames on national security issues, the author's articles in leading U.S. newspapers applies a rare depth of experience and knowledge to a disastrous presidency that the American Political Science Association has ranked the worst in American history.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: From the ‘Troubles’ to Trumpism Stephen Watt, 2024-09-10 In Shakespeare Our Contemporary (1964), Polish critic Jan Kott defines one purpose of scholarship in the humanities that summarises the chief aim of this project: ‘The writing of history and, above all, literary criticism can, and must, always be understood as an attempt to find in the past aspects of human experience that can shed light on the meaning of our own times’. That is precisely what From the ‘Troubles’ to Trumpism: Ireland and America, 1960–2023 attempts to do. Aided by the insights of Irish and Northern Irish playwrights, poets and novelists, this book uses America’s historical relationship with Ireland and Northern Ireland as a means of understanding the rise of Trumpism and assessing its potential to incite a new American ‘Troubles’. Three related aims are to demonstrate the interdependence of Ireland and the United States since the Famine in Ireland and the American Civil War in the nineteenth century; to delineate the political and economic obstacles in the latter decades of the last century that prevented this relationship from evolving into a more consequential partnership; and to identify the underappreciated leaders who played crucial roles in both the brokering of the Good Friday Agreement and the inception of a revised foreign policy.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: The Ministry for the Future Kim Stanley Robinson, 2020-10-06 ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR “The best science-fiction nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.” —Jonathan Lethem If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future. —Ezra Klein (Vox) The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year, this extraordinary novel from visionary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson will change the way you think about the climate crisis. One hopes that this book is read widely—that Robinson’s audience, already large, grows by an order of magnitude. Because the point of his books is to fire the imagination.―New York Review of Books If there’s any book that hit me hard this year, it was Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future, a sweeping epic about climate change and humanity’s efforts to try and turn the tide before it’s too late. ―Polygon (Best of the Year) Masterly. —New Yorker [The Ministry for the Future] struck like a mallet hitting a gong, reverberating through the year ... it’s terrifying, unrelenting, but ultimately hopeful. Robinson is the SF writer of my lifetime, and this stands as some of his best work. It’s my book of the year. —Locus Science-fiction visionary Kim Stanley Robinson makes the case for quantitative easing our way out of planetary doom. ―Bloomberg Green
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: It Was All a Lie Stuart Stevens, 2021-09-14 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the most successful Republican political operative of his generation, a searing, unflinching, and deeply personal exposé of how his party became what it is today “A blistering tell-all history. In his bare-knuckles account, Stevens confesses [that] the entire apparatus of his Republican Party is built on a pack of lies. —The New York Times Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new book he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass. This is not a book about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else. Stevens shows how Trump is in fact the natural outcome of five decades of hypocrisy and self-delusion, dating all the way back to the civil rights legislation of the early 1960s. Stevens shows how racism has always lurked in the modern GOP's DNA, from Goldwater's opposition to desegregation to Ronald Reagan's welfare queens and states' rights rhetoric. He gives an insider's account of the rank hypocrisy of the party's claims to embody family values, and shows how the party's vaunted commitment to fiscal responsibility has been a charade since the 1980s. When a party stands for nothing, he argues, it is only natural that it will be taken over by the loudest and angriest voices in the room.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: The Anger Gap Davin L. Phoenix, 2019-12-26 Anger can be a powerful political resource, but it mobilizes black and white Americans differentially to exacerbate political inequality.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: The Jungle Grows Back Robert Kagan, 2018-09-18 An incisive, elegantly written, new book about America’s unique role in the world. --Tom Friedman, The New York Times A brilliant and visionary argument for America's role as an enforcer of peace and order throughout the world--and what is likely to happen if we withdraw and focus our attention inward. Recent years have brought deeply disturbing developments around the globe. American sentiment seems to be leaning increasingly toward withdrawal in the face of such disarray. In this powerful, urgent essay, Robert Kagan elucidates the reasons why American withdrawal would be the worst possible response, based as it is on a fundamental and dangerous misreading of the world. Like a jungle that keeps growing back after being cut down, the world has always been full of dangerous actors who, left unchecked, possess the desire and ability to make things worse. Kagan makes clear how the realist impulse to recognize our limitations and focus on our failures misunderstands the essential role America has played for decades in keeping the world's worst instability in check. A true realism, he argues, is based on the understanding that the historical norm has always been toward chaos--that the jungle will grow back, if we let it.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Studying Foreign Policy Comparatively Laura Neack, 2018-07-16 What is foreign policy? What do we know about why states pursue certain foreign policies and not others? What factors go into the shaping of foreign policy? Studying Foreign Policy Comparatively, Fourth Edition (formerly titled The New Foreign Policy), answers these questions, and more, by exploring how scholars analyze foreign policy and by applying this knowledge to new foreign policy cases. Benefits of the fourth edition: Every chapter is devoted to a distinct level in the levels-of-analysis approach Provides easy-to-understand explanations and demonstrations of policy models and theories A mixture of current and historical cases from around the world extends students’ knowledge of foreign policy and understanding of contemporary problems New cases include the refugee crisis in Europe, rising populism and anti-immigrant coalition governments, Russian use of media, and China’s Belt and Road Initiative
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: The Truth Teller Jack Buckby, 2023-10-24 Could RFK Jr. overturn 230 years of American political history and become the first independent to mount a truly credible campaign for the presidency? Does the increasingly partisan and unpredictable nature of American politics provide an opportunity for the ultimate outsider to outrun the two-party system? In The Truth Teller, Jack Buckby explores the impact that Kennedy’s candidacy could have on the Democratic party’s slide toward authoritarianism, his ability to connect with America’s youth, the common ground between Trump voters and Democrats, the potential to make landslide victories common again, and the healing power of a candidate who refuses to alienate half of the country. In telling uncomfortable truths, Kennedy offers a radically moderate vision for America and a blueprint for bringing the country back from the brink of permanent decline. The Truth Teller offers a unique look at Kennedy’s campaign, describing how Kennedy’s radically moderate vision for America, his ability to bring together the left and the right, and his unique campaign style present an opportunity for America to normalize its politics and bring this divided country back together.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Indicting the 45th President Gregg Barak, 2024-04-01 Indicting the 45th President is a sequel to Criminology on Trump in real time, continuing the criminological investigation into the former US president. Developing and expanding on the themes of family dynamics, deviance, deception, dishonesty, and the weaponization of the law, this book offers the next chapter on the world’s most successful outlaw. In this new book, Gregg Barak considers the campaigns and policies, the corruption, the state- organized abuses of power and obstructions of justice, the pardons, the failed insurrection, the prosecutions, the indictment of Trump and the politics of punishment as these revolve around the Trumpian character and social structures that encourage such crimes of the powerful. Barak also thoroughly addresses the threat to American Democracy, critiques the current state of the U.S. constitutional system, and proposes reforms to enhance justice for all in the United States. Another accessible and compelling read, this is essential reading for all those engaged with state and white- collar crime in the context of power and privilege, and those seeking a criminological understanding of Trump’s evasion of law and justice.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Compromised Peter Strzok, 2020-09 The FBI veteran behind the Russia investigation draws on decades of experience hunting foreign agents in the United States to lay bare the threat posed by President Trump.
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Who Stole the American Dream? Hedrick Smith, 2013-08-27 Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith’s new book is an extraordinary achievement, an eye-opening account of how, over the past four decades, the American Dream has been dismantled and we became two Americas. In his bestselling The Russians, Smith took millions of readers inside the Soviet Union. In The Power Game, he took us inside Washington’s corridors of power. Now Smith takes us across America to show how seismic changes, sparked by a sequence of landmark political and economic decisions, have transformed America. As only a veteran reporter can, Smith fits the puzzle together, starting with Lewis Powell’s provocative memo that triggered a political rebellion that dramatically altered the landscape of power from then until today. This is a book full of surprises and revelations—the accidental beginnings of the 401(k) plan, with disastrous economic consequences for many; the major policy changes that began under Jimmy Carter; how the New Economy disrupted America’s engine of shared prosperity, the “virtuous circle” of growth, and how America lost the title of “Land of Opportunity.” Smith documents the transfer of $6 trillion in middle-class wealth from homeowners to banks even before the housing boom went bust, and how the U.S. policy tilt favoring the rich is stunting America’s economic growth. This book is essential reading for all of us who want to understand America today, or why average Americans are struggling to keep afloat. Smith reveals how pivotal laws and policies were altered while the public wasn’t looking, how Congress often ignores public opinion, why moderate politicians got shoved to the sidelines, and how Wall Street often wins politically by hiring over 1,400 former government officials as lobbyists. Smith talks to a wide range of people, telling the stories of Americans high and low. From political leaders such as Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and Martin Luther King, Jr., to CEOs such as Al Dunlap, Bob Galvin, and Andy Grove, to heartland Middle Americans such as airline mechanic Pat O’Neill, software systems manager Kristine Serrano, small businessman John Terboss, and subcontractor Eliseo Guardado, Smith puts a human face on how middle-class America and the American Dream have been undermined. This magnificent work of history and reportage is filled with the penetrating insights, provocative discoveries, and the great empathy of a master journalist. Finally, Smith offers ideas for restoring America’s great promise and reclaiming the American Dream. Praise for Who Stole the American Dream? “[A] sweeping, authoritative examination of the last four decades of the American economic experience.”—The Huffington Post “Some fine work has been done in explaining the mess we’re in. . . . But no book goes to the headwaters with the precision, detail and accessibility of Smith.”—The Seattle Times “Sweeping in scope . . . [Smith] posits some steps that could alleviate the problems of the United States.”—USA Today “Brilliant . . . [a] remarkably comprehensive and coherent analysis of and prescriptions for America’s contemporary economic malaise.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Smith enlivens his narrative with portraits of the people caught up in events, humanizing complex subjects often rendered sterile in economic analysis. . . . The human face of the story is inseparable from the history.”—Reuters
  blowback a warning to save democracy from the next trump: Dark Money Jane Mayer, 2017-01-24 NATIONAL BESTSELLER ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Who are the immensely wealthy right-wing ideologues shaping the fate of America today? From the bestselling author of The Dark Side, an electrifying work of investigative journalism that uncovers the agenda of this powerful group. In her new preface, Jane Mayer discusses the results of the most recent election and Donald Trump's victory, and how, despite much discussion to the contrary, this was a huge victory for the billionaires who have been pouring money in the American political system. Why is America living in an age of profound and widening economic inequality? Why have even modest attempts to address climate change been defeated again and again? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers? In a riveting and indelible feat of reporting, Jane Mayer illuminates the history of an elite cadre of plutocrats—headed by the Kochs, the Scaifes, the Olins, and the Bradleys—who have bankrolled a systematic plan to fundamentally alter the American political system. Mayer traces a byzantine trail of billions of dollars spent by the network, revealing a staggering conglomeration of think tanks, academic institutions, media groups, courthouses, and government allies that have fallen under their sphere of influence. Drawing from hundreds of exclusive interviews, as well as extensive scrutiny of public records, private papers, and court proceedings, Mayer provides vivid portraits of the secretive figures behind the new American oligarchy and a searing look at the carefully concealed agendas steering the nation. Dark Money is an essential book for anyone who cares about the future of American democracy. National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist LA Times Book Prize Finalist PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Finalist Shortlisted for the Lukas Prize
Blowback A Warning To Save Democracy From The Next Trump
Blowback Miles Taylor,2023-07-18 The author behind the “eye-popping” (CNN) #1 New York Times bestseller A Warning presents an urgent look at how our deeply divided nation is setting …

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Blowback A Warning To Save Democracy From The Next Trump Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump The rise of Donald Trump, a figure who seemed to defy political norms and ignite societal fissures, was not an anomaly. It was a symptom, a stark manifestation of a broader trend: the return of blowback, a term originally coined in ...

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Keywords: blowback: a warning to save democracy from the next trump, Trumpism, American democracy, populist authoritarianism, election integrity, institutional resilience, political polarization. Luce expertly details the crucial role of social media in amplifying disinformation and facilitating the spread of extremist ideologies.

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Keywords: blowback: a warning to save democracy from the next trump, Trumpism, American democracy, populist authoritarianism, election integrity, institutional resilience, political polarization. Luce’s analysis in blowback: a warning to save democracy from the next trump goes beyond simply critiquing Trump's actions.